UK government insures Bayeux Tapestry for £800m [$1.07 billion] during loan to British Museum

Back to Britain for one more story.
(it was this or British electricity prices and frankly the needlework is pretty amazing)

From the Art Newspaper, December 28:

Historic embroidery will be protected from damage or loss under taxpayer-backed scheme 

 

Visitors study the Bayeux Tapestry at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy 

The UK Treasury will insure the Bayeux Tapestry for an estimated £800m when it goes on show at the British Museum (BM) next year. According to the Financial Times, 

which first reported details of the agreement, the protection will cover damage or loss during the transfer of the tapestry from Normandy and also while it is on display at the British Museum from next autumn.

The UK Treasury told the newspaper that it had “received an estimated valuation of the Bayeux Tapestry which has been provisionally approved” with officials involved in the project told that the final valuation will be “around £800m”. The Treasury did not dispute this figure when approached....

....MUCH MORE 

Previously:

July 13 (also The Art Newspaper) - "Bayeux Tapestry to return to UK for first time in almost 1,000 years"

In 2024 I explained part of my fascination with the tapestry 

"Israeli hacktivist group brags it took down Iran's internet"

There's a lot of stuff going on in the world, isn't there? And sometimes it seems events are choreographed for our titillation and amusement. 

Of course that comment could reflect either a semi-deep insight or a final psychotic break with reality on the part of yours truly.

This weekend we'll be pulling at different threads in the tapestry to see if we can reduce the seeming complexity of the embroidery to the underlying foundation mesh.

And what, possibly curious reader may wonder, led to this feeble excuse of an introduction?

I was contemplating whether I was going to be around to see the return of Halley's Comet which led to a 2021 post on the French-English Brexit fishing deal which used a panel of the Bayeux Tapestry as a graphic:

"France warns of 'reprisals' over Brexit fishing deal"
Huh. My first thought was to check the Bayeux Tapestry Museum to see if there are any analogs.
And, as a first pass guess, it looks like a no. Halley's comet isn't due until 2061 so the current reprisals probably won't be a re-enactment of 1066.*

***

*On the tapestry the comet flies across the top as the people watch and point:
(segment 32 on the digitized panorama)

  

In December 2021's "1415: Wine and the Agincourt campaign, Pt I (logistics and supply)" the focus was again on the tapestry as historical record:

From a depiction in the Bayeux Tapestry we know the Normans embarked on their invasion of England with supplies of wine...

Wedbush's Technology Uber-Bull Dan Ives' 2026 Tech Predictions

Via the LinkedIn of  Todd Rosen:

If the image doesn't appear on our blog here is the LinkedIn page:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/toddarosen_top-10-tech-predictions-for-2026-from-dan-activity-7407823251218853889-yEX9 

And a quick rephrasing of Mr. Ives' points:

1. Tech stocks +20% in 2026:AI-driven growth (software, chips, infrastructure) pushes tech markets higher.
2. Tesla:Launches Robotaxis in 30+ cities; starts large-scale Cybercab production.
3. Apple + Google AI partnership:Joint work on Gemini AI to create Apple’s formal AI strategy.
4. AI infrastructure M&A:Nebius seen as the top acquisition target by a hyperscaler (Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon).
5. Cybersecurity boom:One of the best performing subsectors.
6. Oracle:Expands data centers, converts AI backlog, targets $250/share in 2026.
7. Quantum tech funding:U.S. government (Trump administration) invests in quantum companies (likely IonQ, Rigetti) for national security reasons.
8. Microsoft:Hits peak AI productivity via Azure and Copilot ecosystem.
9. Nvidia dominance continues:Expands global AI chip lead; gains further China access via U.S.-China trade deals.
10. Palantir:Expands AI platform (AIP) success; valued at $1T within 2–3 years.

Britain and lobsters

From The Times, December 22:

Boiling live lobsters to be banned under animal rights reforms 

Downing Street has published its welfare strategy, which sets out a series of new farming and food standards and banning trail hunting 

Boiling live lobsters and crabs will be banned by ministers under animal rights reforms.

In its animal welfare strategy, published on Monday, the government said that “live boiling is not an acceptable killing method”, while also setting out new farming standards and banning trail hunting.

The strategy, which sets out a series of protections for pets, farmed animals and wild animals, said the government would publish guidance on the best way to kill decapod crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters and prawns.

It comes after a new law under the previous Tory government declared the animals were sentient and capable of experiencing pain.

Other methods of dispatching shellfish include electrocution or freezing to stun them before boiling them. Suppliers and restaurateurs warned that electrical stunning devices cost about £3,500.

Robin Hancock, one of the co-founders of Wright Brothers, a leading seafood supplier which has three restaurants in London, said: “With hospitality rather on its knees they do cost over £3,500 per machine. They’re not that small either.

“So I think in summary, of course people care about animal welfare, it’s just the practicalities of it.”

Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, said the UK was “a nation of animal lovers” and claimed the government is “delivering the most ambitious animal welfare strategy in a generation”.....

....MUCH MORE

Today's fun fact: Taking time out from his campaign to abolish slavery, first by abolishing trading in slaves with the Slave Trade Act (1807) followed by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 which banned slavery across the British Empire, a first in world history, William Wilberforce also co-founded the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1824, the first and largest animal welfare organization in the world.

Also in Britain, a repost from June 13, 2018:

350 Years Ago Today: Samuel Pepys Forgot His Lobsters

1666 was a momentous year for Pepys and his environs so the inveterate scribbler wrote about... lobsters.
From the now departed The Appendix:

...Thence with mighty content homeward, and in my way at the Stockes did buy a couple of lobsters, and so home to dinner, where I find my wife and father had dined, and were going out to Hales’s to sit there, so Balty and I alone to dinner, and in the middle of my grace, praying for a blessing upon (these his good creatures), my mind fell upon my lobsters: upon which I cried, Odd zooks! and Balty looked upon me like a man at a losse what I meant, thinking at first that I meant only that I had said the grace after meat instead of that before meat. But then I cried, what is become of my lobsters? Whereupon he run out of doors to overtake the coach, but could not, so came back again, and mighty merry at dinner to thinke of my surprize.

 - Samuel Pepys, Wednesday, 13 June, 1666.

On an inauspicious Wednesday in 1660[sic], Samuel Pepys left his lobsters in the back of a London taxi. According to his diary, he often purchased lobsters from fish markets in the city and brought them home for dinner. He also ate lobster at the homes of friends, served them at an elaborate dinner party, consumed them in pubs with prawns and ale, and indulged in lobster “with his mistress.” Eating lobster was as much a part of this London bureaucrat’s daily life as singing music with friends, buying a book, or seeing a play.

Of course, Pepys fancied himself an epicurean with great taste in food and drink. He was prone to sing the joys of excess in his gustatory feats. The online Pepys “encyclopedia” gathers his many references to food and drink in an impressive searchable list. But lobsters also lurk in the corners of many other early modern documents: their name is defined in multilingual dictionaries, mentioned in descriptions of Virginia and the East Indies, numbered among delicacies in chronicle accounts of banquets, and cataloged among beasts of sea and land. The lobster’s notable red hue when boiled is used to describe flushed faces. “Lobster” is the favored insult of a surly sea captain in an anonymous play.

For an gourmand like Pepys, lobster was both notable and quotidian. Pepys was able to purchase fresh lobster in London markets because earlier in the century English fishing fleets had adopted the Dutch practice of using “smacks,” or well vessels, to keep fish alive while en route from the sea to the market. It was a meal worth mentioning, like a tasty dish of rabbit or oysters, but a loss to leave such delicious shellfish in a hired coach. The crustacean’s purported effect as an aphrodisiac was its most exotic property and perhaps inspired Pepys to couple lobster and lust on at least one occasion....MORE 

The Diary of Samuel Pepys blog has the daily entries; we're now past the 1665 epidemic stage of the plague and coming up on the events of September, 1666.
Here's the complete June 13th entry.

As back-linked in April 2020's "Lessons in Death and Life from the Diaries of Samuel Pepys"

In September 2022 we updated the Pepys collection with: "An Entry From Samuel Pepys Diary, Thursday 28 September 1665" 

 

And one other note on lobsters, from 2024 when greenhouse gas emissions created by powering data centers was a topic of much discussion:

"AMD And Nvidia Will Boil The Oceans"

It has been said that to the lobsters in the kitchens, the sinking of the Titanic seemed like a miracle.
And now, for their progeny generations later it may all prove to have been a cruel hoax.... 

Which ended with an investment tip: 

So, long electricity producers and butter it is.  

On This Date in 1935 the Game "Monopoly" Was Patented (economist Henry George does a cameo) And The Bank Never Runs Out Of Money

After the jump we have one of the dice cheats you can use if some smart-ass 10-year old is getting the better of you.

The fellow who patented the game, Charles Darrow, did not invent it, did not improve it and pretty much did nothing but file for the patent, which the USPTO granted;  Patent Number 2,026,082 on December 31, 1935.

"I think it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly"

-comedian  Steven Wright

We've looked at Henry George a few times, links after the jump.
First up, from BT.com:

December 31, 1935: Charles Darrow patents the board game Monopoly 
A salesman granted himself a licence to print money when he patented the World's most popular board game on this day in 1935. 

The most successful board game of all time, Monopoly - which would go on to be printed in more than 40 languages and licensed in well over 100 countries – was patented on this day in 1935 by a salesman from Philadelphia named Charles B. Darrow.

After convincing the Parker Brothers company to publish the game, its ongoing success would make Darrow the first ever millionaire game designer. It would later be established, however, that Monopoly was simply a development of other, previously existing board games which dated back to the turn of the century.

In 1903, an anti-monopolist named Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Magie had created what she called The Landlord’s Game, intended to show the negative aspects of allowing too much land to be held by private monopolies. She took out her own patent a year later.

In 1903, an anti-monopolist named Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Magie had created what she called The Landlord’s Game, intended to show the negative aspects of allowing too much land to be held by private monopolies. She took out her own patent a year later....MORE (Internet Archive, link rotted)

BT knows a thing or two about monopolies, past and present.

And From Henry George.org:

How Henry George's Principles Were Corrupted Into the Game Called Monopoly

History is filled with surprising stories of how people and ideas are connected. One such story is that of the origins of the most popular board game in modern history. It's an American classic: each new generation of Monopoly players learns to love (harmlessly) indulging its cutthroat, ruthless, greedy impulses. Players begin the game as equals. Luck — and a bit of strategy — eventually enables one player to dominate all others. That player ends up amassing a huge fortune in cash and real estate. Most Monopoly players don't know (or care) that this game was originally the product of a passion for social and economic justice. In the late 1800s, a young woman named Elizabeth Magie was introduced to the writings of Henry George by her father. She eventually became one of many people who took on the task of trying to teach others what she had learned from studying Progress and Poverty and George's other works.

Collaborating with friends in her Brentwood, Maryland community, Elizabeth Magie created The Landlord's Game. She applied for a patent, which was granted on January 5th, 1904 (No. 748,626). She explained that the game was to be a "practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences." While still a young, single woman, Elizabeth -- or "Lizzie" as she came to be called -- became a regular visitor to the Single Tax enclave of Arden, Delaware. This was around 1903. Whether on her own or in conjunction with other Single Taxers in Arden, Lizzie continued to work on the design of The Landlord's Game as a way to explain how Henry George's system of political economy would work in real life.

Arden landmarks: Stephen's Theater and the Craft Shop.
For a close-up look at the game board used in Arden, Click here.

The First Commercial Versions of The Landlord's Game

In 1906, Elizabeth moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she met, and in 1910 married, Albert Phillips. I have not been able to find any reference to Albert as a follower of Henry George, but evidently he was sympathetic to his wife's efforts. At some point in 1906 Elizabeth and a number of other followers of Henry George established the Economic Game Company of New York, which published The Landlord's Game.
Sometime soon thereafter Elizabeth and Albert moved to Clarendon, Virginia, in the Washington D.C area and eventually patented a new edition of The Landlord's Game in 1924 (No. 1,509,312) under her married name of Elizabeth Magie Phillips. This new edition, published by the Washington, D.C. firm, Adgame Company, appeared in 1932 and included named streets and other changes in the appearance of the board. More importantly, the new edition included a second, alternative, set of rules and a second name for the game, Prosperity.

Connections with Academe

Around 1900, Scott Nearing was introduced to The Landlord's Game by either Lizzie Magie or other residents of Arden. He was at the time a full-time resident of Arden. Nearing went on to become a member of the economics department at the University of Pennsylvania in 1906, where he used The Landlord's Game in his teaching. His support of Henry George's proposals to raise pubic revenue exclusively from those who owned land, and his opposition to child labor, caused him to be dismissed from the university in 1915.
Burton H. Wolfe, in "The Monopolization of Monopoly" (San Francisco Bay Guardian, 1976), says that "Nearing played The Landlord's Game with his brother, Guy Nearing, who lived in the Henry George single tax community of Arden, Delaware." Then:

As the students and single taxers played the game, they began a process ... of altering the rules. The main change was that instead of merely paying rent when landing on a property block, the players could hold an auction to buy it.       They also made their own game boards so that they could replace the properties designated by Lizzie Maggie with properties in their own cities and states; this made playing more realistic. As they drew or painted their own boards, usually on linen or oil cloth, they change the title "Landlord's Game" to "Auction Monopoly" and then just "Monopoly".

Burton Wolfe also tells us that a young Rexford E. Tugwell was one of the players. One of Tugwell's own students, Priscilla Robertson -- long-time editor of The Humanist -- provided the following details on the early history of the game: "In those days those who wanted copies of the board for Monopoly took a piece of linen cloth and copied it in crayon. It was considered a point of honor not to sell it to a commercial manufacturer, since it had been worked out by a group of single taxers who were anxious to defeat the capitalist system." (I am obliged to note here the considerable misrepresentation of the objectives pursued by Single Taxers who shared Henry George's principles. Defeating monopoly in all its forms (but, particularly, monopoly of nature), not capitalism, was - and is - the cause embraced then and today.)

Other writers note the game was played by students at Princeton University and Haverford College. Changes were made to the board design, gathering the properties into groups, allowing buildings to be added to the locations and increasing the amount of rent charged based on the number of like properties owned.

By the late 1920s, the version of the game being played by college students and others had evolved quite a bit from Elizabeth's design. The game was now generally referred to as "Monopoly." A young student at Williams College (Reading, Pennsylvania) produced a commercial version under the name Finance, but the game was essentially Monopoly. Then, a woman named Ruth Hoskins who learned the game in Indianapolis moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey and supposedly created the version that included the Atlantic City street names.

Then the plot thickens. The game was introduced by Eugene (Colonel) and Ruth Raiford, friends of Ruth Hoskins, to Charles Todd, who lived in Germantown, Pennsylvania; and, Charles Todd then introduced the game to Charles and Esther Darrow. Eugene Raiford, Charles Todd and Esther Jones Darrow all attended the Quaker Westtown School from 1911 to 1914 or 1915. The subsequent connection with Atlantic City occurred because of the close association of the Westtown School with the Atlantic City Friends' School. As Todd later recalled: "The first people we taught it to after learning it ... was Darrow and his wife Esther. ...It was entirely new to them.... Darrow asked me if I would write up the rules and regulations and I wrote them up ... and gave them to Darrow."...

...MUCH MORE

And Henry George?

...In a January 1936 interview in The Washington Star, Elizabeth was asked "how she felt about getting only $500 for her patent and no royalties ever. She replied that it was all right with her "if she never made a dime so long as the Henry George single tax idea was spread to the people of the country."...

If interested see also: 

• "Monopoly is Theft: The antimonopolist history of the world’s most popular board game" 
• "How Land Disappeared from Economic Theory" 
• The Real Real Estate State and Artificial Scarcity, Technology and Planning

And cheating at dice, "The Whip Shot - Dice Control":

One of the cheat's moves to determine and control the outcome of a throw of two dice is known as the Whip Shot. Learn how cheats can guarantee what numbers are thrown.

Also known as the Peek Shot, the Pique Shot, the Drop Shot and the Hudson Shot. This shot takes more skill than the simple Blanket Roll, but a cheat will make great effort to learn this shot because he can control with certainty the numbers thrown. It doesn't merely change the odds like the Blanket Roll, it sets the result as almost certain with the right conditions.

The cheat will pick the dice up and hold them in a Lock Grip with the desired numbers on the dice facing upward. They are given a false rattle, then the cheat rolls the dice forward with his thumb towards his fingertips (as shown in the diagram).

The cheat then snaps out his wrist with the motion of snapping a whip and throws the dice, but so that the dice spin rapidly like spinning tops without turning along the horizontal axis. The dice then land with the desired faces facing up. To prevent the dice bouncing on a hard surface, the cheat may sprinkle salt or sand on the throwing area, so they slide, or generally soften the surface where the dice are thrown. 

            

A variation and extension to the Whip Shot when throwing against a backboard is the Greek Shot.

Using the same hold you can perform the drop shot, which as the names says is the technique of dropping the two dies such that the upper die freezes the lower die in the position you've chosen, say a six. The upper die will roll away but what you have accomplished is to guarantee a minimum score of 7 (6+1) while additionally increasing the odds of a double 6 from 1:36 to 1:6.

It is strongly suggested that you not use these techniques in high-stakes backgammon games.

One last point:

Page 2 of the two page vintage instructions PDF:

https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/Monopoly_Vintage.pdf

"Almost 80 European deep tech university spinouts reached $1B valuations or $100M in revenue in 2025"

From TechCrunch, December 30:

Universities and research labs have long been Europe’s deep tech treasure trove. Now, academic spinouts have consolidated into a solid startup funnel worth $398 billion — and VC money is following.

According to Dealroom’s European Spinout Report 2025, 76 of these deep tech and life sciences companies have either reached $1 billion valuations, $100 million in revenue, or both. These include unicorns like Iceye, IQM, Isar Aerospace, Synthesia, and Tekever, which are now inspiring more funds to back university spinouts.

Just this month, two new funds emerged that will bring more funding to talent emerging out of European tech universities, while adding breadth to a pipeline currently topped by Cambridge, Oxford, and ETH Zurich.

PSV Hafnium, out of Denmark, recently closed its inaugural fund at an oversubscribed €60 million (approximately $71 million), with a focus on Nordic deep tech. With offices in Berlin and London, but also in Aachen, U2V (University2Ventures) is targeting the same amount for its first fund, of which it recently completed the first closing.

These two newcomers join the growing ranks of European venture firms that have university spinouts as a core part of their investment thesis. Pioneered by the likes of Cambridge Innovation Capital and Oxford Science Enterprises, which have now fully matured, this category has also diversified. 

While it still mostly consists of funds backed by one or several universities and institutes, it now includes independent firms that simply see spinouts as potential fund returners — and rightly so. Oxford Ionics, acquired by U.S.-based IonQ, was one of the six spinouts out of Switzerland, the U.K., and Germany that delivered exits of more than $1 billion to their investors in 2025.

These exits come alongside increased amounts of funding. According to Dealroom, European university spinouts in deep tech and life sciences are on track to raise a near all-time-high $9.1 billion in 2025. This contrasts with overall VC funding in Europe, which is down nearly 50% from its 2021 peak. 

Large rounds closed in 2025 also reflect appetite for spinouts in sectors as varied as nuclear energy — Proxima Fusion — and dual-use drones — Quantum Systems, now valued above $3 billion. In many cases, these startups leverage research from specialized labs, which also explains why there is a long tail of European locations capable of producing spinouts. 

Building relationships with hubs outside of Oxbridge and leading countries can also be a way for newcomers to differentiate themselves and find deals. “The Nordic’s research institutions hold extraordinary, untapped potential,” PSV Hafnium’s partners stated in a press release....

....MORE 

That sounds more productive than whatever it is they're doing at Vassar College. Boring.

"Iranian protesters clash with security forces as tear gas fills Tehran streets amid nationwide unrest"

From Fox News, December 29:

Nationwide strikes shut down major commercial hubs, including Grand Bazaar as unrest spreads to Mashhad 

Protests escalated across Iran on Monday as demonstrators confronted security forces in Tehran and Mashhad, with authorities deploying tear gas amid strikes and street clashes, according to reports.

An Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, reported that a large crowd of demonstrators marched along Jomhouri (Republic) Street before moving into nearby areas, including Naser Khosrow Street and Istanbul Square in Tehran.

Central parts of Tehran turned into flashpoints as protesters and regime security forces engaged in running street clashes near major government and commercial areas.

Police units fired tear gas and used batons to break up crowds in the city center, according to accounts from the scene....

....MUCH MORE 

Iran International is liveblogging:

Summary

• Protests spread across Iran for a third day, with universities and commercial districts emerging as key hubs amid a widening strike by shopkeepers in Tehran and other cities.

• Security forces cracked down on demonstrations, with multiple arrests reported, students detained, and the use of live fire and tear gas in several locations. One student was severely injured in Tehran.

• Protest slogans escalated beyond economic grievances, targeting clerical rule and the Supreme Leader, while some demonstrators called for regime change and a return to the Pahlavi era.

• Officials acknowledged mounting public pressure, with the president calling for dialogue with protesters, while authorities ordered widespread provincial shutdowns citing cold weather and energy constraints.

2 hours ago

Video: 'Death to Khamenei' chanted during Farsan protests

....MUCH MORE 

We found II to be a very straightforward source when Natanz and Iran's other nuke sites were bombed last summer.

On our little blog, most recently, it was just an out-the-door headline to exit December 15's Iran by Slavoj Žižek: "When Communism Is the Only Option":

And from the AP via the Times of Israel, December 15:

Iran’s rial currency plummets to new low, sparking fears of higher food prices 

"IPO Bloodletting after “Pop” in 2025: Venture Global, CoreWeave, Figma, Klarna, Bullish, Circle Internet, Navan, Firefly, Fermi… "

From Wolf Street, December 29:

Of the largest 20 IPOs, 14 trade below their IPO price; only 6 trade above it. Many plunged from their post-IPO pop. 

There were 202 IPOs in 2025 – not including the 144 SPACs that went public – the most since the IPO boom in 2021 (blue columns, left scale in the chart). But a big part of that volume was driven by foreign micro-IPOs of minuscule outfits. So the total amount raised by the 202 companies was $44 billion (red line, right scale), driven by a few big immensely hyped IPOs: The largest 20 IPOs (by amounts raised) accounted for $25 billion of the $44 billion raised. The top nine raised each over $1 billion, and $16.5 billion combined.

The drama that occurred were the first-day “pops” followed by long plunges from the intraday highs. By Friday, December 26, the stocks of nearly all of the largest 20 IPOs had plunged from their intraday highs, with 11 of the 20 plunging by over 40%; and four – we’ll include Figma here though it barely missed being in the largest 20 – plunging by 73% or more. This includes crypto and AI heroes.

And of these largest 20 IPOs, the stocks of 14 had dropped below their IPO prices by Friday. The IPO price is the price at which the company sold shares to institutional investors the day before the stock starts trading publicly.

 

The largest 20 IPOs by amounts raised, plus Figma.

The list below shows the largest 20 IPOs by amount raised in 2025. The largest of the 20 was Medline, which raised $6.27 billion in the IPO. The smallest of the top 20 was Fermi, which raised $683 million during the IPO.

I added Figma to the list, though it didn’t make the cut-off (it raised $412 million) because it was a hugely hyped IPO with a mega-spike during the first two days and then a hard plunge.

The right column shows the percentage decline from the intraday high.

The second column from the right shows the percentage change from the IPO price – the price at which the company sold the IPO shares to institutional investors the day before the stock started trading publicly.

The negative percentage changes are marked in bold....

....MUCH MORE 

"Who to Trust? Danish or Norwegian Intelligence?"

From High North News, December 19:

 

Side by side, the Danish Utsyn 2025 and the Norwegian Fokus 2025 
report on developments in the High North over the past year.

Comment: We are about to close on a turbulent year, to put it mildly. It might have been the most turbulent any of us can remember. So let us hope that next year offers something different, such as the Arctic remaining a region without armed conflict. 

Les på norsk.

This is a comment written by a member of the editorial staff. All views expressed are the writer's own.

We are bombarded almost daily by analyses of the Arctic situation. These are busy times for politicians, the Armed Forces, and a handful of experts. And so are we, who are tasked with following and communicate the analyses to our readers.

Central actors in relaying the threats faced by the High North are the intelligence services is the Norwegian and Danish Defence Intelligence Services. Their reports, respectively named Fokus (Norwegian intelligence) and Utsyn (Danish intelligence), describe these threats.

Or more accurately, the threats the Armed Forces believe should be readily available.

The view of USA

I previously wrote a comment on the Danish report. Now, both countries' reports lie on my desk. Both countries control central, strategic areas in the North. Denmark has Greenland, and Norway has Northern Norway and Svalbard.

In addition, Denmark and Norway also have a close intelligence cooperation, including through NATO. In other words, they hold the same information when assessing the threat landscape.

Denmark has Greenland, we have Svalbard.

Yet, the difference in the two documents is striking. 

The most significant difference is the view of the USA, which Danish intelligence describes as a threat to Danish interests and other allies. This is particularly rooted in the conflict about Greenland. The Norwegian report holds few signs of scepticism toward the US.

But the analyses also highlight differences in terms of the Arctic....

....MUCH MORE 

Our last visit to High North News was December 22's "Russia’s Arctic Shipping Route Turns Into “Dark Fleet” Corridor Used by 100 Sanctioned Vessels". 

That was preceded by the post mentioned above, "Denmark Sees US As Potential Security Concern". 

Higher Gasoline Prices In California As Senate Bill 445 Takes Hold

From the Orange County Register, December 27:

"Susan Shelley: Who pays for California’s war on drivers? You do."

If you’ve hesitated to buy an electric car because it’s typically easier to find a gas station than a charging station, California has a solution for you.

Fewer gas stations. And higher gas prices.

You may see a number of gas stations closing down in 2026 due to Senate Bill 445, which requires the owners of single-walled underground storage tanks containing hazardous substances – gasoline, for instance – to permanently close or replace them. The deadline is this Wednesday, December 31.

Back when SB 445 was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014, the deadline date at the end of 2025 probably seemed so far away that it couldn’t possibly cause any political damage to the politicians who approved it. Now that it’s here, all the current politicians can answer constituents’ questions about local gas stations closing by solemnly pointing to the law and saying they didn’t do it. See how this works?

Whether gas stations comply or close, the regulation’s effect on California gas prices is to push them higher, either from reduced competition or higher costs passed through to customers.

Something similar is currently happening with local trash pick-up fees. A law aimed at keeping organic waste out of landfills was enacted ten years ago and has just taken effect. Now every city has additional costs for separate curbside containers and more expensive trash processing, costs passed on in higher sanitation fees to city residents and businesses. Take it up with the former governor.

The current governor, however, is fully to blame for oil refineries closing in California. Phillips 66 is closing its Los Angeles refinery by the end of the year, and a Valero refinery in Benicia is set to shut down in April. These closures are expected to push gas prices up to even more painful levels.

One reason this is happening is that Gov. Gavin Newsom called two special sessions of the legislature to pass laws with the stated purpose of cracking down on oil companies for the crime of, well, there actually was no crime. Just the crackdown.

The first special session, in 2023, produced Senate Bill X1-2, the “California Gas Price Gouging and Transparency Law.” It set up the “Division of Petroleum Market Oversight” as an independent division of the California Energy Commission. The DPMO was given a mandate to protect the consumers of transportation fuels through “market oversight, investigations, economic analysis and policy recommendations,” as described in the division’s first annual report, released in October.

Then in 2024, needing more political cover for the anger over high gasoline prices in California, Newsom called another special session to crack down on oil companies. This one produced Assembly Bill X2-1, the “Reducing Gasoline Price Risks Law.”

SB X1-2 authorized the California Energy Commission to set a maximum profit margin for gasoline refining and to impose penalties for “excess profits.” It demanded new data collection to spot “market manipulation,” and it required an assessment of methods to ensure a reliable fuel supply while the state “transitions” away from petroleum....

....MUCH MORE 

"Louisiana factory boss gifts 540 employees six-figure Christmas bonuses totaling $240 million"

From the Daily Mail, December 26:

More than 500 workers at a Louisiana factory walked away with six-figure bonuses totaling $240 million after their boss fought for them when he sold the company for $1.7 billion.

Graham Walker, who is set to step down as CEO of Fibrebond on December 31, told prospective buyers he would only sell the company his father founded if they earmarked 15 percent of the proceeds for the company's employees.

The requirement was non-negotiable, Walker told the Wall Street Journal, arguing that without the stipulation, his employees - who did not own stock in the company - would walk out.

Ultimately, executives at power management company Eaton agreed to Walker's terms, and in June, 540 full-time Fibrebond workers began receiving payouts averaging $443,000, to be allocated over the next five years.

Long-time employees received even more.  

When each worker started receiving their bonus amounts in envelopes, some were overwhelmed with emotion, while others thought it was a prank.

Lesia Key, a 29-year veteran at the factory who started in 1995 making $5.35 an hour, broke down when she opened her letter. 

'It was surreal, it was like telling people they won the lottery. There was absolute shock,' recounted Hector Moreno, a business development executive at Fibrebond.

'They said, "What's the catch?"'....

....MUCH MORE 

"4 Companies Already Riding the Wave of SpaceX’s $1.5 Trillion IPO"

From Observer, December 15:

SpaceX is taking steps toward a potential IPO, sending shares of partners like EchoStar and STMicro soaring and drawing investor attention. 

Talk of SpaceX going public is sending the stocks of its partners and investors soaring. After multiple outlets reported earlier this month that SpaceX could pursue an IPO as soon as next year, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday (Dec. 14) that the Elon Musk–led rocket and satellite company will begin hearing pitches from investment banks this week, marking a concrete step toward a long-anticipated public listing.

The scale of a SpaceX IPO would be historic. Bloomberg reports the company is seeking to raise more than $30 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.5 trillion. That would nearly double estimates from earlier reports and quadruple SpaceX’s most recent valuation from a secondary share sale over the summer.

For years, Musk had teased a potential IPO of SpaceX’s Starlink division. Now, the company is considering a full public listing, signaling that its launch business is generating steady revenue capable of withstanding the scrutiny of public markets.

IPO speculation first surfaced on Dec. 5. While SpaceX CFO Bret Johnson has told employees the listing remains “highly uncertain,” the market has already reacted. Shares of several publicly traded SpaceX partners and investors have surged, including EchoStar, a communications networks firm, and STMicroelectronics, which supplies components for SpaceX’s Starlink terminals. Other space-focused companies, such as Rocket Lab, also rose in sympathy.

Here are four companies to watch as SpaceX inches closer to what could be one of the largest IPOs in history....

....MUCH MORE 

"US-Indonesia minerals deal points to new global trade era"

From Asia Times, December 30:

Critical minerals pact signals shift away from free trade deals toward supply chain security-focused partnerships  

The new geopolitics of trade is no longer written in tariffs alone. It is etched into nickel seams, coded into battery supply chains and negotiated quietly in the language of “reciprocity.”

The recently finalized Indonesia–US tariff and critical minerals package is not just another trade deal. It is a signal flare for a world entering a more anxious, mineral-hungry age

By late 2025, Jakarta and Washington had converged on a framework that links reduced US tariff exposure — settling around 19% rather than the earlier threatened 32% — to expanded American access to Indonesia’s critical minerals, especially nickel.

The agreement, due for formal signing in early 2026, also reaches into digital trade, technology cooperation and the rollback of selected non-tariff barriers. On paper, it is transactional. In practice, it reshapes strategic leverage across the Indo-Pacific.

Nickel is the quiet protagonist of this story. Indonesia accounts for more than half of global nickel production and sits at the center of the electric-vehicle (EV) revolution. The International Energy Agency estimates that demand for nickel used in batteries could rise by nearly 100% by 2030 under net-zero scenarios.

For Washington, locked into strategic competition with China and acutely dependent on foreign mineral supplies, Indonesia is no longer just Southeast Asia’s largest economy. It is a pillar of future industrial security.

This explains why Indonesia’s deal differs from parallel US arrangements with Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam. While those agreements also hover in the high-teens tariff range, Indonesia’s package cuts closer to the bone of the national development strategy....

....MUCH MORE 

"How Indian IT learned to stop worrying and sell the AI shovel"

From India Dispatch, December 26: 

The AI Revolution Needs Plumbers After All 

For the last two years, generative AI was going to kill Indian IT. The argument seemed almost self-evident — if machines can write code, a $250 billion industry built on getting humans to write it cheaper has nowhere left to go. Investors acted accordingly, and the sector has since underperformed the broader market by 30% or more.

The industry has spent this year pushing back. It cut margins, restructured workforces, built platforms, and told clients that AI has not transformed their enterprises because their enterprises are a 30-year accumulation of SAP, Oracle, Workday and middleware that was never designed to talk to anything. And finally, Indian IT is who you call when systems need to talk to each other.

Despite all the hype, generative AI is moving slowly. Less than 15% of organizations are meaningfully deploying the new technology at their firms, according to investment bank UBS. And the narrative about the Indian IT dying is beginning to recede. Investment group CLSA titled a note this month, “Discussion moving beyond AI,” a sign that the existential panic has subsided enough for analysts to return to debating deal pipelines and vertical demand.

Enterprise AI has underwhelmed, though of course not from lack of enthusiasm or capital. Industry players say the tech remains inadequate for regulated industries where someone has to sign off on the output. They cite “workslop,” weak governance and high error rate as reasons the gap between AI as boardroom theatre and AI as functioning software remains so wide.

In the meantime, the Indian IT companies are reporting gains from the same force that was supposed to disrupt them.

***omitted: financials for Tata Consultancy, Wipro and Infosys***

Infosys now calls AI-led volume opportunities a bigger tailwind than the deflation threat, a reversal from 2024, and orderbooks held steady in the third quarter even as pricing pressure filtered through renewals. Infosys expects its own orderbook to grow more than 50% this quarter, anchored by an NHS deal worth $1.6 billion over 15 years.

The AI capex cycle has been concentrated among a handful of hyperscalers and labs, while the Fortune 500 is still figuring out what to do with what they have bought. Indian IT is betting that figuring out what to do is billable work. Channel checks suggest a two-to-three year window of preparatory work – data cleanup, cloud migration, system integration – before enterprise-wide AI becomes feasible, and that window is where Indian IT plans to earn its keep.

The IT industry has always been reactive to new technology, late to consulting and early-stage advisory but quick to capture implementation spend once the experiments end and the plumbing needs building. The firms believe AI will follow the same arc: a hype phase they mostly miss, followed by a deployment phase where scale, client relationships and tolerance for unglamorous work become valuable again.

TCS, which cut its headcount by 2%, is spending on the “less fashionable” layers – a 1GW data-centre network in India, an indigenous telecom stack, a sovereign cloud – alongside platforms called WisdomNext and MasterCraft. It acquired Coastal Cloud, a Salesforce advisory firm, for capability it did not want to build from scratch....

....MUCH MORE 

"The AI water issue is fake"

There are any number of reasons to argue against the current infrastructure build-out and the eventual draw on resources that may, or may not, be better used elsewhere but the water issues, except for draining aquifers, don't really matter.

Draining aquifers for pretty much anything other than drinking water is dumb. Draining aquifers for agriculture is insanity. And we do so much of it that the result can actually be measured as a contributor to sea level rise.*

From Andy Masley's substack, October 11, 2025:

AI data centers use water. Like any other industry that uses water, they require careful planning. If an electric car factory opens near you, that factory may use just as much water as a data center. The factory also requires careful planning. But the idea that either the factory or AI is using an inordinate amount of water that merits any kind of boycott or national attention as a unique serious environmental issue is innumerate. Individual data centers can sometimes stress local water systems in the way other industries do, but when you use AI, you are not contributing to a significant problem for water management compared to most other things you do in your day to day life. On the national, local, and personal level, AI is barely using any water, and unless it grows 50 times faster than forecasts predict, this won’t change. I’m writing from an American context and don’t know as much about other countries. But at least in America, the numbers are clear and decisive.

The idea that AI’s water usage is a serious national emergency caught on for three reasons:

• People get upset at the idea of a physical resource like water being spent on a digital product, especially one they don’t see value in, and don’t factor in just how often this happens everywhere.

• People haven’t internalized how many other people are using AI. AI’s water use looks ridiculous if you think of it as a small marginal new thing. It looks tiny when you divide it by the hundreds of millions of people using AI every day.

• People are easily alarmed by contextless large numbers, like the number of gallons of water a data center is using. They compare these large numbers to other regular things they do, not to other normal industries and processes in society. They aren’t aware of how much water society uses on other normal industries.

Together, these create the impression that AI water use is a problem. It is not. Regardless of whether you love or hate AI, it is not possible to actually look at the numbers involved without coming to the conclusion that this is a fake problem. This problem’s hyped up for clicks by a lot of scary articles that completely fall apart when you look at the simple easy-to-access facts on the ground. These articles have contributed to establishing fake “common wisdom” among everyday people that AI uses a lot of water.

This post is not at all about other issues related to AI, especially the very real problems with electricity use. I want to give you a complete picture of the issue. I think AI and the national water system are both so wildly interesting that they can be really fun to read about even if you’re not invested in the problem.

Importantly, I am not saying that it’s impossible for data centers to ever cause any problems with water. They require careful planning in the same ways other large industrial buildings do. What I am saying is that right now no reasonable forecasts imply that data centers will rise to become a significant problem for water access in the US. Almost all complaints about their national water use are basically just saying “We should not have a new large industry in America using water.” The tax revenue per gallon from data centers is just so high that in many places they are among the best new buildings possible to benefit a community experiencing water scarcity, because any other industries using the same amount of water would generate way less tax revenue. Critics of data centers need to carefully weigh their water costs against the massive amounts of revenue they can bring in for everyday people, not just look at the water costs alone. The debate about building data centers should involve reasonable conversations between ecologists, economists, and city officials, not everyday voters shouting down local meetings with misleading statistics.

Contents 

• A few important definitions

• AI water use isn’t an issue on the national, local, or personal level

  • National

  • Local

  • Personal

• How big of a deal is it that data centers use potable water?

• Using AI can save way more water than is used in data centers

• It’s okay to use water on a digital product

• The social value or harm of a tool isn’t the final word on how harmful it is to the environment

• There’s a trade-off between water and energy for data center cooling systems. For the climate, water’s often preferable

• What about all those news stories about AI harming local water access?

  • Every popular article about how AI’s water use is bad for the environment in the last year has had a wildly misleading framing

  • 5 common misleading ways of reporting AI water usage statistics

  • Some examples of great news coverage

• Further reading

A few important definitions 

Suppose I take a cup of water from a lake, and then immediately dump it back in. That doesn’t seem bad. Now I take a cup from the lake, and this time I evaporate it. That seems worse. Now I take a cup and spend some resources on making it drinkable. These all have very different costs and effects on the water system. We need words to describe it.

Water is complicated, but not too complicated. There are a few key definitions to understand. First:

• Consumptive use removes water from a local system. Taking the cup of water and evaporating it is consumptive use. Evaporated water mostly does not return to its original source.

• Non-consumptive use temporarily takes water from a local system, and returns it later unaffected. Taking the cup of water from the stream and pouring it back in is non-consumptive use.

Growing food is an example of consumptive use. Some of the water becomes part of the food itself. When the food is shipped away, the water leaves the local system.

Many data centers rely on evaporative cooling. This is the way water is consumptively used in data centers. They do not immediately evaporate all the water they are using. Most of it circulates through the cooling system repeatedly before evaporation.

Many reports on AI’s water use do not only include water in data centers, they also include the water consumed by the power plants data centers draw from. This leads to a second important distinction....

....MUCH MORE 

 HT: UnDark's "How Much Water Do AI Data Centers Really Use?", December 18.

And the aquifers? Last seen in May 2024's "Over a third of urban Chinese live in sinking cities":

....In fact people are depleting aquifers at such a rate that the H₂O that moves through the water cycle actually ends up in the oceans, raising sea levels. Not huge but measurable.

From the U.S. Geological Survey:

...Estimated global groundwater depletion during 1900–2008 totals ~4,500 km³, equivalent to a sea-level rise of 12.6 mm (>6% of the total). Furthermore, the rate of groundwater depletion has increased markedly since about 1950, with maximum rates occurring during the most recent period (2000–2008), when it averaged ~145 km³/yr (equivalent to 0.40 mm/yr of sea-level rise, or 13% of the reported rate of 3.1 mm/yr during this recent period)....

—Contribution of global groundwater depletion since 1900 to sea-level rise

We pay pretty close attention to water and in the decade since we started pitching Nvidia we've had only two "water and AI" posts 

August 2025 - "AI Data Centers in Texas Used 463 Million Gallons of Water, Residents Told to Take Shorter Showers" 

And October 2025 - "Opportunity: "Next-Gen AI Needs Liquid Cooling"  which has such tidbits as:

....“The average power density in a rack was around 8 kW,” says Josh Claman, CEO of the startup Accelsius. “For AI, that’s growing to 100 kW per rack. That’s an order of magnitude. It’s really AI adoption that’s creating this real urgency” to figure out a better way to cool data centers.

Specifically, the urgency is to move away from fans and toward some sort of liquid cooling. For example, water has roughly four times the specific heat of air and is about 800 times as dense, meaning it can absorb around 3,200 times as much heat as a comparable volume of air can. What’s more, the thermal conductivity of water is 23.5 times as high as that of air, meaning that heat transfers to water much more readily.

“You can stick your hand into a hot oven and you won’t get burned. You stick your hand into a pot of boiling water and you can instantly get third-degree burns,” says Seamus Egan, general manager of immersion cooling at Airedale by Modine. “That’s because the liquid transfers heat much, much, much, much more quickly.”....

On the other hand we have dozens of posts on H₂O. 

From trying to figure out various bets on water to: September 2019's - Water and Its Mysteries:

Isaac Asimov was fascinated with water and among his non-fiction books is The Left Hand of the Electron which references water over 200 times. And via Inference Review someone else with the fascination. Marc Henry, Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science, and Quantum Physics at the University of Strasbourg:

There are very few things that modern science does not understand. One of them is consciousness; the other is water.¹ In the case of consciousness, the hard problem is designing good experiments; in the case of water, finding a theory that explains its properties.

Thermodynamic theories assume that any substance may be characterized by its internal energy U(S,V), where S and V are extensive variables, S is a measure of the number of accessible quantum states at a given temperature T, and V is a measure of the spatial extension of the system at a given pressure p. By the first law of thermodynamics dU(S,V) = T·dS – p·dV. Every substance has an equation of state (EoS) p = k_BT·[1/V + B₂(T)/V² + …], where k_B = 0.0138 zJ·K^–1 is a universal constant. B₂(T) is negative at low temperature and positive at high temperatures. At B₂(T) = 0, attractive and repulsive forces are in balance. For an ideal gas, B₂(T) = 0; for a system of hard spheres of diameter σ, B₂(T) = 2π·σ³/3; for a van der Waals gas, B₂(T) = b – a/k_BT, with b and a measuring the repulsive and attractive forces between molecules.

Let MW designate molecular weight. The substance displaying the greatest ratio T_B/MW = 80(8) K·Da^–1 is water (H₂O), followed by hydrogen fluoride (HF), and ammonia (NH₃). T_B/MW thus corresponds to the density of cohesive energy. The fact that water is an elixir for life is perfectly justified from a thermodynamic point of view. In chemistry, such high densities are usually associated with abnormally high ebullition points.

A phase diagram in the plane represents the domains where a substance may exist as a solid, liquid, or gas. Domain boundaries are marked by coexistence lines. It is there that two phases coexist. Substances undergo first-order transitions at coexistence lines; the system absorbs or releases energy, giving rise to discontinuous changes in volume and density. The sublimation line is the locus of points where a solid coexists with a gas and may extend from zero to the triple-point temperature T₃. In the case of water, this triple point is observed at T₃ = 0.01°C = 273.16 K and p₃ = 611 Pa = 0.006 atm. The melting line is the locus of points from T₃ to an infinite temperature. These phases have different symmetries. Full rotational invariance in the liquid phase turns into discrete symmetries in the crystal phase. The condensation line is the locus of points where a gas coexists with a liquid and extends from T₃ to a critical point C. Above C, only a single-phase homogenous system exists. In the case of water, this critical point is observed at T_C = 373.946°C = 647.096 K and p_C = 22.06 MPa = 217.7 atm. This critical point occurs as soon as two phases share the same symmetry group.....MUCH MORE

*Archive.org: The Left Hand of the Electron - Isaac Asimov

Regarding Asimov, though he made his money writing science fiction he was a trained chemist: PhD, Columbia, post doc, taught biochem at Boston Uni's Med school etc.

And he was fascinated by water. See after the jump. 

That's from December 30, 2020's "Hydrogen Storage: A New Form Of Ice" which has this outro:

One of Asimov's riffs on water, "Not as We Know it: The Chemistry of Life" he uses this little paragraph as a jumping-off point:

Water is an amazing substance with a whole set of unusual properties which are ideal for life-as-we-know-it. So well fitted for life is it, in fact, that some people have seen in the nature of water a sure sign of Divine providence. This, however, is a false argument, since life has evolved to fit the watery medium in which it developed. Life fits water, rather than the reverse.

In his book "The Left Hand Of the Electron" Dr. A gathers essays he had written over the years:

The Thalassogens

Subject: common liquids
First Published In: Dec-70, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Collection(s):

• 1972 The Left Hand of the Electron

Cold Water

Subject: freezing of water
First Published In: Feb-71, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Collection(s):

• 1972 The Left Hand of the Electron

Hot Water

Subject: boiling points
First Published In: Jan-71, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Collection(s):

• 1972 The Left Hand of the Electron

If interested, here's the book at Archive.org. I did a quick search and saw 114 hits for 'water'.

So yeah, we pay attention to water. 

"China's finance ministry says fiscal policies will be more 'proactive' in 2026"

Riffing off of Martha Reeves singing Marvin Gaye: Everywhere around the world folks are waiting for stimulus, sweet, sweet stimulus.

From Reuters, December 27/28: 

China's finance ministry on Sunday said fiscal policies will be more proactive next year, reiterating its focus on domestic demand, technological innovation and a social safety net. 

The statement comes as trading partners urge the world's second-biggest economy to reduce its reliance on exports, underscoring the urgency to revive confidence at home where a prolonged property crisis has rippled through the economy, weighing on sentiment.

 

China will boost consumption and actively expand investment in new productive forces and people's overall development, the ministry said in a statement after a two-day meeting at which it set 2026 goals.

 

In addition, the ministry said it will support innovation to foster new growth engines, and improve the social security system by providing better healthcare and education services.

Other tasks for next year include promoting integration between urban and rural areas, and propelling China's transformation into a greener society.

 

China is likely to stick to its annual economic growth target of around 5% in 2026, government advisers and analysts told Reuters, a goal that would require authorities to keep fiscal and monetary spigots open as they seek to snap a deflationary spell....

....MORE 

 

Here's the house organ, China Daily, December 28:

China to pursue more proactive fiscal policy, finance minister says 

And the Vandellas via Genius lyrics:

[Verse 1]
Calling out around the world
Are you ready for a brand new beat?
Summer's here and the time is right
For dancing in the street
They're dancing in Chicago (Dancing in the street)
Down in New Orleans (Dancing in the street)
In New York City (Dancing in the street)

[Pre-Chorus]
All we need is music, sweet music
(Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet music)
There'll be music everywhere (Everywhere)
There'll be swinging, swaying
And records playing
Dancing in the street, oh.... 

Amazing what stimmies can do.